Curated OER
Context Clues, Plot Structure, Conflict, and Personal Narrative Essay
What are the elements of a personal narrative? Get your class talking by reading "The Necklace" and "A Dangerous Game." The lesson plan focuses primarily on defining certain vocabulary terms (like context clues, plot, conflict, climax,...
Curated OER
Making Connections
In order to maximize reading comprehension levels, young readers must learn to make connections to the content. This worksheet applies to any reading and provides spaces for readers to document relevent personal experiences, prior...
Curated OER
Making Connections
Fourth graders investigate visual imagery to aid reading comprehension. In this reading strategies lesson, 4th graders discover how visual imagery helps in comprehending a story. Students use a reader's notebook to record connections.
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Ruta Sepetys
Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...
TED-Ed
Lessons from Auschwitz: The Power of Our Words
Some words are best left unspoken. Words matter, according to Benjamin Zander, conductor, teacher, and lecturer. To illustrate his point, Zander recounts a story told to him by a survivor of Auschwitz. As a result of her experience this...
Perkins School for the Blind
Language Experience Stories
Here is a great way to bring core content to your special education classroom. Included is a set of instructional ideas intended to help learners increase their verbal and written expression through storytelling. Tape recorders, story...
ReadWriteThink
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure
A picture is worth a thousand words, but a comic strip combines both images and words for the ultimate narrative effect. After reading The Three Little Pigs and deciphering the plot elements, elementary readers work through four...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Benjamin Franklin and Learning a Lesson
Examine stories with a moral in a character development instructional activity. The class reads a short story written by Benjamin Franklin in which he pays too much for a toy whistle. Individuals then make text-to-self connections and...
Curated OER
Poetry Through Digital Storytelling
Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...
Curated OER
Digital Storytelling
Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for The Scarlet Letter
How does or society punish people who break the law? What effect does guilt have on a person's life? In what way does or society demand we conform to certain conventions? Such questions, found in this study guide, are sure to...
Curated OER
Mirrors & Windows: Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use”
“Mirrors” or aspects from a story that reflect a personal text-to-self connection, and “windows,” an aspect that gives insight into a different way of being, are the focus of an activity designed for Alice Walker’s story. Readers select...
Curated OER
Writing Leads
Creative writing allows your students to explore their imagination and connect to literature in a personal way. This presentation will help you discuss what a good writing lead, or attention grabber is. Included are a list of lead types...
Curated OER
How can we write a silly story?
Second graders use the writing process and create a silly story. In this silly story lesson, 2nd graders will review person, event and setting and complete a chart for each. Students will put a person, event and setting in an envelope...
Curated OER
Nouns in a Story
Students, assessing a variety of formatting tools with Microsoft Word, utilize a bank of vocabulary words to make a personal dictionary of nouns. They classify nouns for people, places, things and ideas and separate them into common and...
Curated OER
We Tell Stories
Young readers bring characters to life by working in small groups to script and perform stories that contain a community concept. Detailed questions and activities are outlined for the class. Consider having your groups create...
Curated OER
James and the Giant Peach
This James and the Giant Peach worksheet provides 15 short answer questions and extension activities. They address characterization, basic reading comprehension, making personal connections to the reading, and more. The formatting is...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Learning About Opioids
Feeling high is not the only side effect of abusing prescription opioids. Middle and high schoolers learn more about specific painkillers, including Fentanyl, Oxycodone, and Clonazepam, as well as their common brand names and extensive...
Curated OER
Chrysanthemum
Our uniqueness should be celebrated, not teased. The story Chrysanthemum addresses having a distinct name and dealing with different perceptions. Pre- and post-reading questions are listed to help your learners understand and make...
Curated OER
Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman
Readers make personal connections to Saturday Market by Patricia Grossman and answer comprehension questions while reading the book. Comparing and contrasting the different characters in a Venn diagram leads to a kinesthetic activity...
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
For the Teachers
Sequence Plot Chart
Your kids can identify the plot sequence of a short story, but what about an informational article? Have them examine the chronological order of events in informational texts with a lesson on the sequence of events.
August House
Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail
Learn about the animals of Australia with a language arts lesson about an Australian folktale called, Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail. After reading the story as a class, kids discuss events and characters from the book, retell the story to...
Curated OER
Current Connections
Many of us read our history books and take each word as truth. Show learners that history can easily be altered depending on who writes it. Your class will watch a series of videos, read a first person testimony, and discuss the...